Universal Design for Learning Principles

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING PRINCIPLES

THE WHYMultiple Means of Engagement(Keep Students Interest)

THE WHATMultiple Means of Representation(Show Information in Different Ways)

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING PRINCIPLES

THE HOWMultiple Means of Expression(Freedom do Approach Tasks and Demonstrations Learning in Different Ways)

THE WHYMultiple Means of Engagement(Keep Students Interest)

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR SELF-REGULATION

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR RECRUITING INTEREST

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR SUSTAINING EFFORT AND PERSISTENCE

Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation

Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge

Increase mastery-oriented feedback

Foster collaboration and community

Develop self-assessment and reflection

Optimize individual choice and autonomy

Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity

Minimize threats and distractions

Heighten salience of goals and objectives

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Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies

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Tip: Ensure that information is presented in an interesting and relevant manner in order to spark the student's interest. Otherwise, previous knowledge is not activated and the capability of understanding might be in fact inaccessibleEmpower learners to take charge of their own learning by allowing them to choose the level of the initial challenge they want to embrace, to perceive the existing competencies and the ones that need to be improved (associated with the means to achieve this goal).Allow free choice of tools and resources to be used while retrieving information for the specific topic/task.Freedom to choose the format of information (video, podcasts, books, etc), colour and layout, etc.Involve students in the design of their assignment by allowing them to set their personal goals and timeline

Connect learning to experiences that are meaningful and valuable.Pay attention to cultural and social characteristics that might need to be included in the learner experience. Make the new concept or idea as relevant as possible to the student's experience.Ensure that the content is suitable and appropriate to the age level. Avoid using racial, cultural, ethnic and gender stereotypes.Certify that the message is clear to the whole audience.Present tasks that are engaging and promote active participation of everyone.Promote self-reflection opportunitiesInclude activities that foster the use of imagination to solve novel and relevant problems, or make sense of complex ideas in creative ways.

Foster a safe space to learn and take risksAvoid unnecessary challenges by organizing the activities in charts, and calendars, and providing tips to support the learning journey. Surprises and unexpected rewards can also be introduced in order to reduce the monotony of our deep routed routines.Be aware of the sensitivity of learners to external stimulation such as background noise, visual stimulation, etc.Introduce some flexibility to a different pace of workIntroduce as many breaks as necessaryAn energizer should be introduced to lighten intensive hours of work and concentration.

Tip: When motivated to do so, many learners can regulate their attention and affect in order to sustain the effort and concentration that such learning will require. However, learners differ considerably in their ability to self-regulate in this way.Set a vision for the goal and why it matters.Display the goals in multiple waysSplit long-term goals into short-duration objectivesHelp students visualize the desired outcomeInvolve the students in the assessment of the quality of the final results and the establishment of levels of achievement according to their cultural background, interests and possibilities.

Rise to high expectations using flexible tools and supports.Differentiate the degree of difficulty of each activityProvide alternatives and tools to support studentsVary the degree of expected performance to accommodate the effort of students to the same level, according to their specific characteristics and skillsAvoid promoting competition among students. The level of achievement and success is according to one's own progress.

Guide learning by emphasizing the role of effort and process.Provide feedback that encourages perseveranceProvide frequent feedback and make sure it is informative rather than comparative or competitive

Cultivate a community of learnersIncentivize collaboration among individuals with different skillsEncourage mutual support among peers.Create communities around common interests and activities

Activate learners’ intrinsic abilities to regulate their own emotions and motivations. The ability to self-regulate—to strategically modulate one’s emotional reactions or states in order to be more effective at coping and engaging with the environment—is a critical aspect of human development.Help students learn how to self-regulate their emotions by supporting them to handle frustration.Support peer-to-peer coaching and support.Help students understand their own strengths and weaknesses.Encourage self-reflection opportunities and constant revision of personal goals.

Develop and manage healthy emotional responses and interactions.Help students externalize their need for support.Provide opportunities for students to learn to develop internal control and coping skills.Help learners accept the areas where they need improvement rather than the self-assumption that they are not good at something.Demonstrate effective ways to deal with problems and stress by presenting real-life situations.

Increase awareness around progress toward goals and how to learn from mistakes.Use activities that facilitate self-assessment opportunities.Provide tools and resources that help follow up the progress towards the achievement of a certain goal.

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR COMPREHENSION

THE WHATMultiple Means of Representation(Show Information in Different Ways)

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR PERCEPTION

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR LANGUAGE, MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSIONS AND SYMBOLS

Promote understanding across languages

Clarify sintax and structure

Illustrate through multiple media

Clarify vocabulary and symbols

Maximize transfer and generalization

Guide information processing, visualization and manipulation

Offer ways of customizing the display of information

Offer alternatives for auditory information

Offer alternatives for visual information

Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols

Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships

Activate or supply background knowledge

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Display information in a flexible format so that the following perceptual features can be varied:- Size of text, images, graphs, tables and other visual content,- The contrast between background and text or image,- The color used for infromation or emphasis,- The volume or speed of video, animation, sound, simulations, etc.- The layout of visual or other elements,- The font used for print materials.

Use captions whenever possible (for videos or other animations)Enable speach-to-text,Use automatic translation in videos (YouTube provide this funcionality),Provide visual diagrams, charts, notations of music or sound,Provide if possible written transcripts for videos or auditory clips,If possible provide an sign language app incorporated in the lesson,Provide visual or tactile equivalents for sound effects or alerts (e.g. vibrations, etc.)Provide visual and/or emotional description of musical interpretations.

Provide descriptions (text or spoken) for all images, graphics, video or animations,Use touch equivalents (tactile graphics or objects of reference) for key visuals that represent concepts,Provide physical objects and spatial models to convey perspective or interactions,Provide auditory cues for key concepts and transitions in visual information,Follow accessbility standards (NIMAS, DAISY, etc.) when creating digital text,Provide acces to text-to-speech software .

Construct meaning from words, symbols, and numbers using different representations.- Pre introduce the necessary vocabulary and symbols establishing connections to previous learning,- Provide graphics and symbols with alternative text descriptions,- Explain complex terns or equations by showing how they are composed by simpler words or symbols,- Embed support for vocabulary and symbols within text (e.g., hyperlinks or footnotes to definitions, explanations, illustrations, etc.),

Make the patterns and properties of systems like grammar, musical notation, taxonomies, and equations explicit.- Clarify unfamiliar syntax by using alternatives by making connections to previously learned structures, making relations between elements, links between ideas, etc.

Make sure text and symbols don't get in the way of the learning goal.- Allow text-to-speach- Allow eacy access to multiple representations of notation where appropriate,- Offer clarification of notation through lists of key terms.

Use translations, descriptions, movement, and images to support learning in unfamiliar or complex languages.- Enable the use of automatic translation apps or browsers,- Create a support list of the key vocabulary in the native language of the students,- Embed visual, non-linguistic supports for vocabulary clarification (pictures, videos, etc. )

Accentuate important information and how it relates to the learning goal.- Highlight or emphazise key elements in text, graphics, diagrams, etc.- Use multiple examples to emphasize critical features.- Draw attention to critical features.- Highlight previously learned skills that can be used to solve unfamiliar problems.

Support the process of meaning-making through models, supporting tools and feedback. Help students to process information and visualize the content being explored- Give clear instructions for each step of the process in a sequential order.- Introduce graduated support that helps information processing.- Provide multiple entry points to a lesson.- Allow multiple pathways to explore the content.- Split information in smaller elements- Release information on a "need-to-know" basis and progressively.

Apply learning to new contexts.- Provide opportunities to generalize the learning experience to new situtations or topics.- Revisit key ideas and links between ideas.

Build connections to prior understandings and experiences.- It is very important that students feel within their comfort zone, so it is crucial to establish links to prior existing knowledge.- Build bridges between connected concepts and introduce metaphors to support its understanding.- Make explicit cross-curricular connections.

Make learning come alive with simulations, graphics, activities, and videos.Present key concepts in alternative forms (text, graphs, illustrations, video, comic strip, etc.)Make links between information in illustrations, equations, diagrams, etc.

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS

THE HOWMultiple Means of Expression(Freedom do Approach Tasks and Demonstrations Learning in Different Ways)

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR PHYSICAL ACTION

Provide graduated levels of support for practice and performance enabling the increase of fluencies.

Enhance capacity for monitoring progress

Vary the methods for response and navigation

Optimize access to tools and assistive technologies

Use multiple media for communication

PROVIDE OPTIONS FOR EXPRESSION AND COMMUNICATION

Use multiple tools for construction and composition

Guide appropriate goal setting

Support planning and strategy development

Facilitate managing information and resources

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Provide materials with which all learners can interact.Properly designed curricular materials provide a seamless interface with common assistive technologies.- Provide alterantives for the time necessary to perfome certain tasks, also ensure that there are options for motor actions required while interacting with instructional material, physical instruments and technologies.- Provide alternatives for physically responding or indicating selections (marking with pen and pencil, using the mouse in a computer, etc.- Provide alternatives for interacting with materials by hand, voice, joystick, keyboard, adapted keyboard, etc.

Open doors to learning with accessible tools and devices.- Introduce keyboard commands that can replace mouse action.- Provide access to alternatives for physically responding or indicating selections.- Provide alternatie for physcially interating with materials by hand, voice, etc.

Express learning in flexible ways.- Communication should be allowed in multiple ways mixing text, speech, illustrations, videos, dancing, singing, painting, etc.- Enable the use of objects to illustrate thoughts and concepts.- Allow the use of interactive tools such as: padlet, miro, social media groups, etc.

Share thoughts and ideas using tools that complement the learning goal.- Suggest the use of spellcheckers, grammar checkers and word prediction softward.- Provide text-to-speach (and speach to text) software, recording.- Allow the use of automatic translation whenever possible to make other language texts more accessible or even use Google Translate that has the feature of speaking out loud the words.- Provide calculators, sketchpads,etc.- Use web applications to facilitate or enrich the students learning and presentations.

Apply and gradually release tools and resources to support independent learning.- Enbale students to become fluent in a specific task by supporting their journey with the necessary tools.- Provide diverse formats to support the mastery of a certain topic, langague or skill.- Introduce students to various level of mastery that enable them to improve according to their own needs, learning speed and goals.- Provide differenciated feedback to students according to their own progress goals, customized to each individual characteristics. Student's progress should be compared to one's own progress aims and not to a non-personalized standard applied to everyone.- Provide multiple examples to illustrate the topic being developed.

Practice setting challenging and authentic goals.- Enable the self-reflection on the goals to be achieved and support to fraction the different tasks and components in achievable milestones.- Provide recognition for each milestone achieved.

Formulate reasonable plans for reaching goals.- Provide tools to follow-up the student's progress.- Suggest the use of check-lists and project planning templates to help set priorities and enable the constant update of next steps.- Suggest constant review of the steps established and the possiblity to break tasks into smaller ones if necessary.

Support organization and memory using flexible tools and processes.- Introduce students to data managment colection and managment tools such as online forms and spreadsheets.- Introduce tools and resources to help organize ideas such as padlet, miro, etc.- Introduce brainstorming techniques in order to help them prioritize ideas and next steps.

Analyze growth over time and how to build from it.- Support the use fo self-monitorign and self-reflection tools.- Suggest the use of taks log books (diaries where the students will register all the work done). For instance before data collection, activities to collect data, observations, etc.- Provide suggestions of check-lists to keep track of progress.- Keep a channel open for students to request support from teachers or peers.- Use self-assessment checklists to help students improve their competence profile